RESIDENTS and businesses claim Surrey Heath Borough Council is not doing enough to prevent a repeat of last month’s floods.

Their complaints follow more than 1½in (42mm) of rain falling in the Camberley area on the morning of Friday July 20, causing streams and drains to overflow.

Properties in Bagshot and Lightwater were the hardest hit by flood water in the News area. Some damaged shops in these communities are still closed almost a month after the deluge.

Philip Hayward spent more than £15,000 replacing damaged furniture and laying new floorboards and carpets after his two cottages in Guildford Road, Bagshot, were flooded when the Windle Brook burst its banks. He said his insurance company refused to pay out because his home was also flooded in 2002.

Mr Hayward is disgusted that no one from the council has visited him to offer support or advise on what he can do to protect his property from flooding.

He said: “We’ve had no correspondence or any help from the authorities or had anyone coming round to see if we are ok.”

“I know that something needs to be done to the brook to make it more streamlined, but there’s been no advice as to who we should write to, whether it’s the Environment Agency or the borough council.

“I can’t imagine that they are going to fork out any money to help us.

“It’s just crazy that whenever it does flood these particular houses get it really bad. Yet the solution is something really as simple as removing a tree stump from the brook.

“To have it removed would make the water flow so much easier. At the moment there’s only a two foot gap to squeeze through. It would make the brook wider and the water could go through quicker and be able to get away and not rise so fast.

“Nobody wants to know, though. The stump is on the council’s land but there’s been no comment from them at all.”

Mr Hayward wants to sell his home and move out of the flood zone but said he first wanted to resolve the problem of the brook. He did not want the next owners suffering the same problem.

“I’ve got to sort out the brook with no assistance from the local authorities,” he said. “To dig out the brook would help so much but I’m getting blanked by them. It’s only a day’s work with a digger.

“I’m really sad about living in Surrey. I pay my taxes but get no assistance. They stay away because they know they’ve done wrong.

“I want to say to them ‘look, these are the problems and these are the suggested solutions, what can we do about it?’”

Christine Haymes, from The Pantry Sandwich and Coffee Shop, in High Street, Bagshot, said someone from the borough council visited to ask questions about how the flood had affected her, but she had received no support.

She said the council should inform the public what it proposed to do to help those affected and what action it will take to minimise the risk of flooding.

Something had to be done to improve the flow of water along the Windle Brook, which she believed contributed to the flooding of properties in High Street.

Last week, the borough council announced it had held a meeting with Surrey County Council, Thames Water and the Environment Agency, all of which have some responsibility for addressing flooding issues.

Surrey Heath’s executive member for emergency planning, Cllr Keith Bush, said the meeting was the first stage in exploring how local authorities and agencies with flooding responsibilities in the borough can work better together in the event of an emergency.

It was the council’s aim to keep the public informed at every stage, he added. A council spokesman said the meeting was “very positive and many views and ideas were exchanged”.

He declined to comment on what these views and ideas were or on Mr Hayward’s wishes to have the tree stump removed from the Windle Brook.